
African and African Diaspora Studies
Véronique A-J Hélénon
Education
Ph.D.- History,
Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)- Paris, France.
DEA, History.
Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)- Paris, France.
Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po)- Paris, France.
DEUG in Economics.
Sorbonne- Paris, France.
Research Interests
My research interests are diverse. They cover the African Diaspora, popular culture, music, colonialism, and construction of race and identities - with a specific emphasis on the Caribbean and the French-speaking African Diaspora. In my most recent work, I explore the conjunctions of Hip-Hop, Diaspora and racial identity in the French urban context. I am currently preparing two articles, one on anti-Black racism in France and the other one on the poetics of Hip-Hop. Additionally, I am in the final stage of writing a monograph on colonialism through the lenses of French Caribbeans who went to Africa prior to World War II. In the near future I intend to pursue my research in three main directions: slavery and memory in France, soccer in Africa and the Diaspora, as well as race and the academe.
Courses
African Civilization
Haitian History
Caribbean History
Music and Resistance in Africa and its Diaspora
Modern African Diaspora
Colonialism in the Atlantic World
French Colonialism
Black France (Spring 2009)
Awards
Fulbright scholarship at the Africana Studies Program, NYU 1996-1997
Three-year Research Fellow- French Education Department, Paris, France,
[allocataire de recherche]. 1990-1993
NEH Faculty Workshop on Cuban Music in the Humanities Context, FIU
Summer 2006
Select Publications
Hélénon, Véronique. "Un aspect de la politique coloniale française en Afrique: les administrateurs coloniaux originaires des colonies de Guadeloupe, Martinique et Guyane" in Le discours psychanalytique, 16, special issue, (January, 1996) : 229-240.
Hélénon, Véronique. "Police. Rap Music in France and the Prosecution of NTM" in Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, 1 : 3 (1998) : 233-240.
Hélénon, Véronique. "Races, statuts juridiques et colonisation. Antillais et Africains dans les cadres administratifs des colonies françaises d’Afrique" in Patrick Weil & Stéphane Dufoix, eds. L’esclavage, la colonisation et après, Presses Universitaires de France, 2005.
Hélénon, Véronique. "Africa on their Mind. Rap, Blackness and Citizenship in France" in Sidney Lemelle & Dipannita Basu (eds.), “The Vinyl Ain't Final”: Hip-Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, Pluto Press, (2006).
Hélénon, Véronique. Foreword to The Life, Thought and Legacy of Cape Verde's Freedom Fighter Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973): Essays on His Liberation Philosophy, John Fobanjong and Thomas Ranuga eds. New York: Edwin Mellen Press (2006).
Hélénon, Véronique. “French Caribbean in Africa: The Role of the Freemasonry, 1900-1939” in Toyin Falola, Niyi Afolabi, & Aderonke Adesanya eds. Migrations and Creativity in Africa and the Africa Diaspora,Carolina Academic Press (2008)
Hélénon, Véronique. Encyclopedia entries, “Aimé Césaire” and “Blacks in Europe”, Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora, (2008)
Related Service
Co-Organizer of the “Global Dimensions of Hip Hop: Place. Policy, and Personhood”
Conference at the Wolfsonian-FIU, May 2008.
Member of the Advisory Committee of The Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora
Contact Information
Assistant Professor
Department of History and AADS
Office: AC1-165
Phone: 305-919-5876
Email: helenonv@fiu.edu